Crime copy worth killing

Pointed out on the Boston Editors group on Facebook, a bit of crime writing from the Springfield (Mass.) Republican that only a mother could love - the mother of the writer - and then not even a sure thing at that.

Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett he ain't. Not even Mickey Spillaine.

A sample:

The city's mobile forensics investigation truck has been getting a workout this year

Early Sunday it was parked outside a North End home, where a man was found on the sidewalk around 2:15 a.m., shot in the head and bleeding. Police declared the victim dead at the scene, making him the city's 20th murder victim of 2011.

The extent of the man's head injury was bad, according to authorities, who later hosed down the blood-stained sidewalk in front of 564 Chestnut St. while most of the neighborhood was still asleep.

For homicide detectives and firefighters, it was just another day on the job. They chatted amiably as a fireman trained his hose on a puddle of blood. A murky, red stream inched its way toward the gutter, turning a tawny color as it pooled near the base of a driveway.

Once the sidewalk was clean, the firefighters said goodbye to a detective, just as the first spikes of morning sunlight began appearing on the dark, frost-covered block.